36 years on, China lifts 1-child policy

Beijing: China has discarded the one-child policy amid rising workforce shortage and aging population that is endangering the country's economic growth.

The policy was implemented 36 years back and was seen as a global landmark that reduced an estimated 400 million births and saved millions from starvation. The restrictions had also led to an imbalanced sex ratio because of a traditional preference for boys, and draconian enforcement that sometimes included forced abortions.

It has been discarded in favour of a two-child policy as China faces significant economic challenges from countries like India, which enjoy demographic dividend of a younger population.

"China will fully implement the policy of 'one couple, two children' in a proactive response to the issue of an aging population," the ruling Communist Party said in a communique issued after its central committee's fifth plenary session held from Monday to Thursday.

It said China would continue to uphold basic national policy of population control and improve its strategy on population development to promote a balanced growth of population.

China, which is the world's most populous country with over 1.3 billion people, hopes the one-child norm's reversal would result in at least one million new births to help reverse declining population growth.

The move, however, may not spur a huge baby boom in part because fertility rates are believed to be declining even without the policy's enforcement. China had been relaxing the one-child policy in stages over the past few years. It initially relaxed the policy in some areas and later allowed couples, who were single children of their parents, to opt for a second child. Beijing permitted a couple to go for a second child even if one of them was a single child to his/her parents in November 2013.

Officials then hoped the relaxed norms would result in two million new births. But only one million parents registered with authorities for second child over the past one-and-half years.

This resulted in the review of the one-child policy and its eventual withdrawal.

Critics said the relaxation of rules was too little, and too late to redress substantial negative effects of the one-child policy on the economy and society. Wang Feng, a leading expert on demographic and social change in China, called the change a "historic event" that would change the world but said the challenges of China's aging society would remain. "It's an event that we have been waiting for for a generation, but it is one we have had to wait much too long for," Wang said, adding, "It won't have any impact on the issue of the aging society, but it will change the character of many young families."

The one-child policy revolutionized family planning across the globe when it was introduced in 1979. The only exception to the above rule was rural parents, whose first child was a girl. They were given the right to opt for a second child. The one-child norm was implemented with the help of the Communist propaganda, disincentives to couples with more than one child, fines, forced sterilization and abortions.

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